A NEW York academic who should have been in the North-East yesterday has spoken of the carnage left by Tuesday's terrorist strike.

Perry Bard was due to address yesterday's conference organised by Teesside University's Community Informatics Research and Applications Unit (CIRA).

She was teaching digital art at a college across the river in Brooklyn when the World Trade Centre was hit.

Her students took cameras and recorded the events unfolding.

She said: "Some students have parents who work in the World Trade Centre. When the reality hit, hysteria set in."

Ms Bard said she was lucky to make it back to her apartment just three blocks away from the start of the debris.

She said: "My neighbourhood had been evacuated but I was allowed onto my block by showing my ID. It looks like the end of the world.